Download Communications Update – June 20th 2007

Communications Update – June 20th 2007
Monthly news bulletin from the Communications Office, Church House, London.
Feel free to forward this to others, or to use in diocesan or parish newsletters,
magazines or websites.
This news bulletin is issued to members of General Synod, recipients of the e-mailed
daily briefing, within the National Church Institutions’ All Staff bulletin and to parish
magazines via the http://www.parishpump.co.uk website. It is also available on the
Church of England website at http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/cofegazette/ It can also
be subscribed to at no charge for automatic delivery every month to email inboxes via
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/commsupdate.html/
Please scroll down to read items. Comments, please, to Peter Crumpler, Director of
Communications on [email protected]
This month’s contents:
Key debates on Senior Church Appointments, Anglican Communion Covenant,
Marriage Law and Iran at York Synod
Archbishop of Canterbury interviewed by Time Magazine
Talent and Calling: Review recommends talent pipeline for future senior
appointments
Bishop's prayer for burnt-out nation: discover what happens when you do
nothing
Back to Church Sunday takes off across the country - 1700 churches sign up
Listen to the Voice Convention
2009-Year of the Child: Celebrating Children in the Church
Transforming Worship
Research points to priceless value of the local parish church
Church gives cautious welcome to Government proposals on tackling global
warming
Church Campaign Celebrates World Environment Day 2007
The National Aerials Agreement
Key debates on Senior Church Appointments, Anglican Communion Covenant,
Marriage Law and clergy pensions at York Synod
Major items of concern to the Church’s mission and ministry, the Church’s wider
relations and the Church’s engagement with society will be discussed at the General
Synod when it meets at York University from Friday, July 5, to Tuesday, July 10. There
is also an emphasis on the Church’s resources, including items on clergy pensions and
on the Church Commissioners. There are several special addresses and presentations,
including an address by Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, the Children’s Commissioner, and a
Presidential Address by the Archbishop of York. The full agenda and reports relevant
to the different sessions of Synod can be found at:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/gensynod/agendas/july2007.html Full details of the
key debates are at: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5770.html
Archbishop of Canterbury interviewed by Time Magazine
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was on the front cover of the
European and African editions of Time Magazine. In a frank account of the challenges
facing the Anglican Communion worldwide, Time Magazine outlines Dr Williams' hopes
for the future in the run up to the 2008 Lambeth Conference. Find the main story "Saving
Grace" here: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1630227,00.html
Talent and Calling: Review recommends talent pipeline for future senior
appointments
Future senior office-holders in the Church of England could be identified and developed
through a ‘talent pipeline’, a new report recommends. It also calls for greater diversity
among such office-holders, welcoming the work to ensure that women are not
discriminated against and calling for greater effort to ensure that the holders of senior
appointments broadly reflect the diversity of the clergy from which they are drawn. The
report will be discussed at General Synod in July.
Talent and Calling is the report of a review group appointed in response to a General
Synod motion which called for a review of the law and practice regarding appointments
to the offices of suffragan bishop, dean, archdeacon and residentiary canon. (The
method of diocesan bishops had been reviewed previously and therefore did not form
part of the group’s remit.) The group was chaired by Sir Joseph Pilling. More details at:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5670.html
Bishop's prayer for burnt-out nation: discover what happens when you do nothing
The Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, the Bishop of Reading, stopped commuters in their tracks
when he handed out egg timers at his local mainline train station with this challenge:
take three minutes of silence a day to transform your life. Bishop Stephen is urging the
country to discover what happens when we simply stop and rest, in a passionate plea for
the nation to ditch endless ‘to do’ lists, constant streams of emails, and an increasingly
‘24/7’ culture.
Instead, by binning instant tea and coffee in favour of traditional methods that create
time for reflection during their preparation, appointing a ‘happy hour’ when all televisions
and radios in the house are switched off, baking bread, or simply enjoying a lengthy liein, the bishop’s book 'Do Nothing to Change your Life', published by Church House
Publishing, encourages readers to appreciate the need to create pauses in daily life – for
our own, and society’s, health and wellbeing. To order:
http://www.chpublishing.co.uk/product.asp?id=2393448
Back to Church Sunday takes off – 1700 churches sign up
More than 17,000 people are expected to return to church in September as Back to
Church Sunday expands to take in 1700 churches across England. Resources to invite a
friend Back to Church and to welcome them on Sunday, September 30th are now being
delivered to more than one in 10 of the Church of England’s churches. With 19 dioceses
taking part this year, the 1700 churches involved is a tenfold increase on the 160
churches that took up the venture when it began, in Manchester, in 2004. More details:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5107.html
Listen to the Voice Convention
Listen to the Voice, the first-ever Convention for all diocesan officers working with
Children and Young People in the parishes and schools of the Church of England and
Wales was held in June. Over 220 people gathered at Center Parcs, Sherwood Forest,
for a full programme of keynote speakers, workshops, Bible Study, fun and worship
culminating is a final Eucharist with the Archbishop of York. The 2009 ‘Year of the Child
initiative’ was launched at the Convention (see below).
The organisers hope that the conversations, encounters and reflections started at the
Convention will continue and develop in dioceses and across networks in the months
ahead. There are many thousands of people involved in mission with children and young
people in and beyond our churches and schools. The Listen to the Voice website will
disseminate various content and materials and 'cascade' elements of the Convention for
the next six months (www.listentothevoice.org.uk).
2009-Year of the Child: Celebrating Children in the Church
2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the United Nations’ International Year of the Child.
This is an ideal opportunity for the Church to adopt 2009 as a celebration of children and
childhood by:
 Reviewing our work with children and young people
 Celebrating their contribution in the life of the Church and of wider society.
 Challenging the Church to fresh vision and expression, inspired by the spirit of the
child.
“In the lead up to Year of the Child 2009 it is my hope that individual churches and
Christian denominations throughout the country will opt in to this initiative and make
available the resources needed to make it a success. Young people all over the country
need to hear the words of Christ’s love for them in all manner of ways. So too, we the
Church need to hear afresh God speaking to us through the life and witness of children.
Come and join the celebration, be challenged and be inspired”.
Most Revd & Rt Honourable Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop
of York
A website is in development to support the Year of the Child initiative and its web
address will be: www.yearofthechild2009.co.uk
Transforming Worship
Road shows and websites will be central to a new initiative encouraging everyone
involved in planning and leading worship to make it not just good but worthy of God and
transforming of people’s lives. The Liturgical Commission is launching Transforming
Worship, an initiative to help everyone responsible for worship make the most of the
resources available, now the Common Worship texts have been completed and stand
alongside the Book of Common Prayer at the centre of Church of England worship. More
details at: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5407.html
Research points to priceless value of the local parish church
The value which communities place on the unique role of the parish church at the heart
of their neighbourhood is one of the nation’s best-kept secrets, according to the Church
of England’s head of research and statistics in a book recently published by Church
House Publishing. In Community Value, the Revd Lynda Barley argues that, while the
UK is a nation that is more prosperous and healthy than ever, we have never been so
unhappy. “At the beginning of the twenty-first century the people of Britain have become
a nation of islands where individual aspirations may have ‘gained us the world’ but at the
expense of our social cohesion – and the cracks are beginning to show,” she writes. To
order: http://www.chpublishing.co.uk/product.asp?id=2393451
Church gives cautious welcome to Government proposals on tackling global
warming
The UK must face the challenge of climate change with passion and creativity, not
gloomy martyrdom, the Church of England has warned. Full response to DEFRA: an
official consultation. Other details: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5807.html
Church Campaign celebrates World Environment Day 2007
The Church of England celebrated the first anniversary of its Shrinking the Footprint
campaign on 5th June, World Environment Day 2007. World Environment Day sets out
to deepen public awareness of the need to preserve and enhance the environment. The
Church’s campaign, based upon practical locally based initiatives supported by
information promoting best practice, is set to move up a gear as it moves into its second
year. More details: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5007.html
The National Aerials Agreement
The Archbishops’ Council and telecommunications equipment installer QS4 have
confirmed the arrangements which will apply to churches who have entered into licences
under the National Aerials Agreement [NAA] after it reached the end of its planned five
year term on 30th May 2007. Both parties are satisfied that no further formal agreement
is needed, but parishes which have entered into licences under the NAA will continue to
benefit from the safeguards it provides. More details:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5570.html