THE BISHOP OF GUILDFORD has met with the Primate of all Nigeria, The Most Revd Nicholas Okoh, as the Diocese of Guildford’s link with the Church of Nigeria prepares to turn 50 next year.

The Rt Revd Christopher Hill, who retires in December, also conveyed personal greetings from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Justin Welby, as a team from Guildford received a warm welcome in Abuja.

Archbishop Nicholas heard reports of the recent visit to Guildford of Archdeacon John Adubasim, of Niger Delta North, and expressed personal thanks to parishes for the Diocesan-wide call to prayer in Guildford during the abduction of Archbishop Ignatius Kattey in September, happily resolved a week later.

The two Bishops affirmed their commitment to mutual learning between Nigeria and Guildford, and to continue strengthening ties born out of the Anglican Conference in Toronto in 1963 – the oldest link of its kind in the Anglican Communion.

A major discussion centred on the Church of Nigeria’s opposition to what it considers concessions made in the Church of England to same-sex relationships, and the different cultural contexts of Nigeria and the UK. The Primate spoke with candour, emphasising that ripples of decisions made by the Church of England were felt strongly in Nigeria, often drawing criticism to the Anglican Church of Nigeria from other Nigerian denominations and faiths seeking to claim moral high ground.

In response, Bishop Christopher clarified the Church of England’s unchanged position on marriage, and asked for prayer as the General Synod continues its thinking on women bishops and human sexuality in the coming years. He also pledged prayer, particularly for Christian communities coming under increasing attack from militant Islamist groups in the north of Nigeria.

The Guildford contingent also proposed a joint initiative to explore commemoration of Samuel Crowther, the first African Anglican bishop in Nigeria, whose 150th anniversary of consecration falls in 2014, to which the Primate responded warmly.

Challenges ahead

The Bishop of Guildford, The Rt Revd Christopher Hill said: “I am very glad to have met with Archbishop Nicholas, and am grateful for his kind hospitality.

“His passion for the gospel is pre-eminent; as also is his deep respect and affection for the Church of England which sent the first missionaries to Nigeria.

“While we do not hide the fact that there are challenges ahead for this relationship, the affirmation given and commitment to mutual prayer is a source of genuine encouragement.

“We have much to learn from one other, and our Christian witness is the richer for continued companionship and understanding with brothers and sisters across such diverse cultural contexts.”

During a week-long visit in the days prior to the November meeting of General Synod, the Guildford team, also including Revd David Minns, Keith Malcouronne, Nick Edmonds and Revd Neil Lambert, travelled to other Nigerian Dioceses to further promote links, and attend the DIVCCON conference.

Citing a strong record of human rights activism and pastoral leadership, Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) announced today that The Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga, Bishop of Southern Malawi (Anglican Communion), will serve as a Presidential Fellow for six months beginning January 2014. The fellowship was made possible with the support of the Episcopal Dioceses of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

“I am very pleased to offer Bishop Tengatenga this Presidential Fellowship,” said EDS President and Dean, the Very Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale. “His dynamic faith, moral leadership, and commitment to justice are values that have long defined EDS. We look forward to his work and witness among us and are delighted that our students will have the opportunity to learn from his wisdom and experience. We are thankful to the dioceses of Connecticut and Massachusetts as well for their support and counsel in helping to facilitate Bishop Tengatenga’s appointment as a Presidential Fellow.”

The Presidential Fellowship comes just three months after Dartmouth College rescinded Bishop Tengatenga’s appointment as Dean of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation, after a student group alleged he was homophobic. In an open letter to Dartmouth, Dean Ragsdale, along with other Episcopal Church leaders, academics, LGBTQ advocacy groups in Malawi, and other human rights advocates, disputed the student group’s claim and described Dartmouth’s actions as “a gross injustice to an individual who would have made an ideal person to provide moral and ethical leadership at the College.”

Bishop Tengatenga’s long record of support for LGBTQ rights in his native Malawi and across Africa was a decisive factor in inviting him to EDS as a Presidential Fellow. In 2007, Bishop Tengatenga opposed a move by church leaders in Africa to cut ties with the U.S. Episcopal Church because of its support of LGBTQ clergy, and in 2010, together with bishops from Central and Southern Africa, wrote a strong counter-statement to an anti-LGBTQ communique from church leaders at the All-African Anglican Bishops’ Conference. 

“I thank Episcopal Divinity School and President Ragsdale for this honor and opportunity,” said Bishop Tengatenga. “I look forward not only to using my time at EDS for writing, reflection, and prayer, but also as an oppor-tunity to enter into the life of a seminary that is a moral and intellectual leader in theological education. I hope to share my experience of close to thirty years of ministry in Malawi with EDS students, and to both ask and answer questions about the important work that God has set before us—the work of alleviating suffering and inequality, of promoting ecumenical cooperation, and of building a more just society.”

“EDS has a long history of embracing those relegated to the margins of society,” said Dean Ragsdale. “Whether it’s the hiring of the first women priests in the Episcopal Church in the 1970s, our commitment to teaching liberation theology, or the welcoming of LGBTQ clergy in the last two decades, EDS has long been at the forefront of progressive Christian movements. Bishop Tengatenga’s time here will strengthen that work and give our students the opportunity to learn from one of the great global leaders of faith in our time.”

Bishop Tengatenga will join a seminary with an increasingly international reach. EDS students come from six continents to study in both traditional and low-residency Distributive Learning degree and certificate programs. Over the last several years, EDS has implemented student exchange programs with seminaries in Asia and has expanded its popular Foreign Study Seminars to South Africa and to China.

“All members of the EDS community share a commitment to intellectual engagement, progressive social action, and to respecting the dignity of every human being,” said Dean Ragsdale. “Bishop Tengatenga’s leadership in the Anglican Communion in Africa, his human rights activism, his HIV ministry, and his work on behalf of ecumenism in Malawi make him an ideal Presidential Fellow.”

Bishop Tengatenga will be in residence on the school’s historic Brattle Street campus from January – May 2014 to write, to worship with the community, and to make himself available to EDS students seeking consultation or guidance in academic or spiritual matters.

About The Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga

James Tengatenga was born in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe, on April 7, 1958. In 1979 he began theological training and priestly formation at Zomba Theological College in Malawi after which, in 1982, he continued theological training at The Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest at Austin, Texas, where he earned a master’s degree in divinity.

In 1998 he was consecrated bishop of Southern Malawi.

He has a Ph.D (Church and State Relations) from the University of Malawi, D.D (honoris causa) from Episcopal Theological Seminary of the South and a D.D. (honoris causa) from the General Theological Seminary in New York.

The bishop has been involved in HIV ministry as a member of the Malawi National AIDS Commission which coordinates the national response to HIV and AIDS. He is currently a member of the executive committee of the Malawi Partnership Forum which is the forum for the government and all partners in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

He has been involved in many mediation talks among political parties in the country and during the 2004 elections he chaired the church leaders committee that facilitated the multi-party talks that led to the Mgwirizano Coalition.

Bishop Tengatenga and his wife Joselyn have nine children, six of whom are adopted from deceased sisters.

The Faculty of Theology and Religion at Oxford University has announced with great pleasure that Professor Alister McGrath, currently Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education at King’s College London, and head of its Centre for Theology, Religion, and Culture has accepted the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion at Oxford and will take up his new post on 1 April 2014.

Alister McGrath began his academic career at Oxford University by taking First Class Honours in Chemistry, followed by a doctorate in molecular biophysics in the laboratories of Professor Sir George Radda FRS. He then took First Class Honours in Theology, and began a detailed study of the relationship between Christianity and the natural sciences. He gained an Oxford DD for his work on historical and systematic theology in 2001, and an Oxford DLitt for his work in science and religion in 2013.

McGrath’s main areas of interest concern the interaction of theology and the sciences, with a particular focus on how the working methods and assumptions of the natural sciences can be theologically useful. He has published substantial studies developing an approach to natural theology as an area of theological reflection that opens up important dialogue between theology and the sciences, while at the same time linking it to important cultural conversations about truth, beauty and goodness. On his return to Oxford as Idreos Professor, McGrath expects to continue to develop and defend natural theology, especially in the face of the criticisms directed against it by Karl Barth, while at the same time showing that the dialogue between science and religion can be theologically productive and engaging. He will also continue to explore the challenges raised for Christian faith and theology through Darwinism, and how contemporary philosophies of science can inform constructive theological reflections.

Although McGrath is primarily dedicated to the positive development of historical and theological research, he is also well known for his many contributions to popular publications and debates, and especially for challenging the view that science and religion are mutually incompatible.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has named Lucille B Pilling, EdD, MPH, RN of Philadelphia, PA (Diocese of Pennsylvania) to serve as the provincial delegate to represent The Episcopal Church at the 58th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) in New York City, March 10 – 21, 2014.

The 2014 priority theme of UNCSW is “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls.”

Pilling will be one of 20 provincial delegates who will join with those representing the provinces of the Anglican Communion.

A member of Christ Church Philadelphia, Pilling has extensive experience in working with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), both professionally and in the Episcopal Church. A widely published author, lecturer and consultant, she also has worked with United Nations agencies, international nonprofit organizations as well as the U.S. Peace Corps with a focus on women’s health.

She was vice president of International Programs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and senior program officer at Columbia University where she supervised a $50 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative. Pilling managed primary health care programs in Africa and Latin America for 13 years (Ghana, Kenya, Bolivia, Costa Rica and Zimbabwe) and provided short-term technical assistance around the world. Dr. Pilling is affiliated with Thomas Jefferson University School of Population Health and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia. She teaches courses in global health and public health in the community.

For more information about UNCSW, contact Lynnaia Main, Episcopal Church Global Relations Officer, lmain@episcopalchurch.org.

Australian Church history has been made with the election of the Rev Dr Sarah Macneil as the first woman to be the diocesan bishop of an Anglican Diocese.

Dr Macneil, who is from Canberra, has accepted her appointment as 11th Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton. She will be consecrated and installed early next year.

Other women have been consecrated as assistant bishops within Australian Anglican dioceses and, overseas, women have been made diocesan bishops but this is a national first for Australia.

Dr Macneil said she was “surprised, overwhelmed, humbled” to be the first Australian women elected a diocesan bishop.

“I am awed by the confidence placed in me by the [Grafton Diocese] appointment board and by their willingness to be trailblazers,” she said.

Dr Macneil is a former Dean of Adelaide and archdeacon in the Diocese of Canberra-Goulburn. She is presently Senior Associate Priest at Holy Covenant in Jamison, ACT.

Start of Royal Commission hearings

The Diocese of Grafton is facing a number of significant challenges, not least the hearings that begin this week before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in relation to historical cases from the North Coast Children’s Home.

For her part, Dr Macneil, said she was “struck by the faithfulness, openness and resilience of the people of the diocese, lay and ordained” in facing these issues.

“In recent times the Diocese of Grafton has faced financial difficulties and is now appearing before the Royal Commission… There is a determination among the people of the diocese to understand what has gone wrong in the past, to ensure that it does not happen again and to embrace the future with hope, trusting in God.”

Dr Macneil said that during the discernment period she became increasingly aware that had some key skills the Diocese needed at this time.

“There seems to be a good match between my gifts, skills and experience and the particular mix of qualities the diocese was looking for at this stage of its life. They are keen to have a bishop with a heart for mission in the 21st century, a respect for the diversity of Anglicanism and with administrative experience, all of which are part of my story,” she said.

“I am excited at the prospect of being part of this rebuilding and refocussing and humbled by the confidence the selection board has placed in me. I am particularly looking forward to getting to know the people of this diverse and beautiful diocese,” she said.

Dr Macneil was selected from a number of candidates by a Nomination Board appointed by Diocesan Synod. While details of the appointment process are confidential it is understood Dr Macneil’s selection was unanimous.

Twenty years since first ordination of a woman as priest

Her election comes almost 20 years to the day since the first ordination of a woman in Grafton diocese which embraces the North Coast of NSW, extending from Port Macquarie to the Queensland border.

Her election will cause considerable excitement in church circles, not only among Australian Anglicans but in mainline churches around the world.

It will be interpreted by many as an overt sign of an increasing acceptance of women in leadership roles within the church.

Her consecration in Christ Church Cathedral, Grafton, early in 2014 is expected to draw a large number of people who have been prominent in the advocacy of women in leadership within the Anglican Church during the last 3o years.

Colleagues describe Dr Macneil as having a servant heart, being prayerful, possessing insight and humour and delighting in diversity within the church.

She is a life time Christian in the Anglican tradition and, before ordination, worked in Australia and abroad with the Commonwealth Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The Vatican will mark the conclusion of the “Year of Faith” with the first public exhibition of the the relics of St. Peter, the Apostle and first Bishop of Rome.

On 8 November 2013 Msgr. Rino Fisichella, president for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, announced in an editorial published in the semi-official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano St. Peter’s relics will be removed from their grotto and placed on display to mark the close of the Year of Faith  on 24 November.

The editorial did not offer further details, but announced the Year of Faith – a major evangelization initiative for the Roman Catholic Church – will conclude on Sunday the 24th with Pope Francis celebrating the Eucharist in St Peter’s Square.

First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has lent his support to the call by Tamil leaders for a boycott of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

On 7 November 2013 the South African Nobel Laureate urged Commonwealth heads of government to skip the meeting in protest over “war crimes” committed by the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Approximately 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the Sri Lanka’s civil war, a 2009 U.N. report claimed, as government troops shelled rebel held territories in the north of the island. The U.N. report also accused the rebel Tamil Tigers of shooting civilians who attempted to flee the war zone. In the war’s aftermath the government has been accused of using violence to suppress political dissent and has jailed journalists for voicing critical views.

On 11 November the Indian government announced that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would honor the boycott and skip the meeting, while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week said he would stay away in protest to Colombo’s treatment of the Tamils. Both governments will send lower level delegations to the 51-nation summit.

Prime Minister David Cameron stated he would attend, but will ask “serious questions” of Mr. Rajapakse after having viewed a “chilling documentary” detailing the closing months of the war.

“I will raise my concerns when I see president Rajapakse next week in Colombo,” Mr. Cameron said, “and I will tell him that if Sri Lanka doesn’t deliver an independent investigation, the world will need to ensure an international investigation is carried out instead.”

“If there are enough reasons to suggest that the Sri Lanka government have not been doing things with integrity, I think the world has to apply all the screws that it can,” Archbishop Tutu said. “And a boycott of the CHOGM could be one of them.”

First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya has denounced a call by Mombasa clergy that they be given guns to protect themselves from the depredations of criminals and Islamist militants.

“As church leaders, we should be on the forefront preaching for peace and reconciliation. Churches are places of worship and not a battlefield,” Archbishop Eliud Wabukala said on 1 November 2013.

On 20 October 2013 a pastor at a Pentecostal church in Mombasa was shot to death in his church’s sanctuary. At his funeral church leaders called upon the government to protect ministers – or give them the means to do so.

The call to arms received the cautious support of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), which last week issued a statement saying it supported the right of clergy to bear arms, if they complied with civil laws concerning the registration and use of guns.

However, Archbishop Wabukala told the congregation gathered at Bishop Hannington’s Teachers College in Mumias, guns were no guarantee of safety.

“An AK47 rifle will never secure anyone’s security. I beg to differ with my fellow pastors because even if they are issued with guns, how will they protect themselves from a mob. They should ask Kenyans to repent and live in peace,” the archbishop said.

It was the responsibility of “government to provide security to all. No single person can protect himself. We need everyone to be protected regardless of their position in society.”

“The murder of the pastor was wrong; the attacks on churches should be stopped. All places of worship should be respected whether it’s a church, a mosque, a temple or even a traditional shrine. We should be tolerant with those who don’t believe in our religion because we are all Kenyans,” the archbishop said according to an account of his sermon printed in The Standard.

First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.

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