Bishop Peter Selby, the retired Bishop of Worcester and a long term supporter of Inclusive Church, is to speak at Word on the Street. His paper will be called "WHEN THE WORD ON THE STREET IS 'RESIST' - reflections on the present moment." His offer follows the publication of the Archbishop of Canterbury's response to the Episcopal Church - "Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future". We will also be inviting our other speakers to reflect, if they wish, on the place of resistance in a theology of inclusion - and the workshops planned and announced in our last newsletter will reflect the changing situation in the Anglican Communion. As you'll see below, there's a lot going on, and Word on the Street will form part of all that. There are a few places left - book now.

WOTS Tuesday 6th October 2.00pm – 3.30pm

Christina Rees - Through the Biblical Door

Christina Rees is chair of Women and the Church (WATCH) and a trustee of IC. In this workshop she explores human liberation and fulfilment in the light of her biblical understanding and personal experience, which includes the experience of leadership in the present struggle for women to become bishops within the Church of England.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin – My life and Our Life

Rose Hudson-Wilkin is Vicar of Holy Trinity, Dalston and All Saints, Haggerston. She is 5a member of General Synod and has recently completed a 10 year term as Chair of the Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns. Today Rose helps us explore how to combat racism in the parish and the wider life of the Church of England.

Giles Goddard – Route Maps and Road Blocks

Giles Goddard is Chair of Inclusive Church, newly appointed Priest in Charge of St John’s Church Waterloo and hon. canon of Southwark Cathedral. His book “Space for Grace, Creating Inclusive Parishes” was published by Canterbury Press in November 2008. Giles has been involved in trying to make the structures of the church welcoming to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people for many years and uses this workshop to ask “Dialogue – where now, in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion?”

Clare Herbert – Sharing Everyday Bread

Clare Herbert is national coordinator of Inclusive Church and NSM at St Martin-in-the-Fields. In this workshop she introduces Everyday Bread , module 1 of the Inclusive Church 5 step programme “Living Christianity” and discusses resources for use in the parish and/or local area to increase participants’ confidence in faith and competence in “doing theology together”

Lesley Bilinda – Ubuntu, we can be human only together

Lesley Bilinda is the author of two books “The Colour of Darkness” and “With What Remains” (Hodder and Stoughton) and has been involved with the Tutu Foundation UK since its launch in 2007. Formerly the manager of a community health programme in Rwanda she has spoken widely on the issues of forgiveness and reconciliation following the murder of Rwandan husband Charles, with many of their family members and friends, in the genocide of 1994. Lesley will use this workshop to describe the work of the Foundation and to help us consider the principles of Ubuntu in our own work for inclusion and peace.

WOTS_A4_Flyer_rev_1.pdf

This statement was released on 4th August 2009 and has been widely noticed and commented upon - mostly positively -

A joint statement from thirteen groups working together in the Church of England

We have read and reflected upon the Archbishop’s response to the Episcopal Church of the USA “Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future” and have a number of questions about the consequences of his response. We question whether the voices of those within the Church of England who are or who walk alongside lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people have been adequately heard within the recent discussions. These discussions have gone on in various places around the Communion, and we believe it is important in this context that the LGBT faithful and those who work alongside us speak as well.

We wish to reaffirm our loyalty to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in the scriptures, our commitment to the Anglican way, and our celebration of and thanksgiving for the tradition and life of the Church of England. Above all, our concern is for the mission of the Church in our world. We have no doubt that the Church of England is called to live out the Gospel values of love and justice in the whole of its life; these values are intrinsic to the calling of Jesus Christ to follow him and it is out of this context that we speak.

While we acknowledge the intention of the Archbishop of Canterbury to seek a way forward for the Anglican Communion, we have grave concerns about the implications of his reflections in “Covenant, Communion and the Anglican Future.” For example, we consider that references to same-sex unions as a “chosen life-style”, and assertions that those who have made such a commitment are analogous to “a heterosexual person living in a sexual relationship outside the marriage bond” to be inconsistent with the Archbishop’s previous statements on committed and faithful same sex relationships (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4473814.ece) and are at odds with our reading of the message of the gospel. Whilst we applaud his assertion that we are called to “become the Church God wants us to be, for the better proclamation of the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ” we find no indication of how that can be achieved for those who are not heterosexual.

We acknowledge, once again, that there are and always have been many loyal, committed and faithful bishops, priests and deacons – properly selected and ordained - and many lay people who are LGBT or who work alongside LGBT people with delight and thanksgiving. We know ourselves to be part of the church of God in England and we work, together, to bring about the reign of God in this part of God’s creation. We pray earnestly that the Church of England will continue to select, train, ordain and deploy LGBT people and enable them to exercise their calling from God in the Church of England.

Together, we reaffirm our commitment to working for the full inclusion of all people at all levels of ministry. We will continue to work towards liturgical and sacramental recognition of the God-given love which enables many LGBT couples to thrive. We will seek to strengthen the bonds of affection which exist between those in all the Churches of the Anglican Communion who share our commitment to the full inclusion of all of God’s faithful. We will also continue to work closely with our brother and sister churches, especially those with whom we have mutual recognition of orders such as the Nordic churches.

We will work to ensure that if the Church of England is to sign up to the Covenant, it has potential for rapid progress on this and other issues. We find the notion of a “two track communion” flawed in the way that the Act of Synod is flawed, and we commit ourselves to continuing the effort to find ways forward through which those who disagree profoundly on this and on other issues can continue to celebrate their common membership of the Church of England and unity in Christ.

Signed by representatives of the following groups working together in the Church of England

Accepting Evangelicals

Changing Attitude

The Clergy Consultation

Courage

Ekklesia

Evangelical Fellowship of Lesbian and Gay Christians

General Synod Human Sexuality Group

Group for the Rescinding of the Act of Synod

Inclusive Church

Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (Anglican Matters)

Modern Churchpeople’s Union

Sibyls

WATCH National Committee

On_the_Archbishop_s_Reflections_4th_August_2009.pdf

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