Justin Welby discloses family link to slavery
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has revealed that his late biological father, Sir Anthony Montague Browne, a private secretary to Winston Churchill, had an ancestral connection to the enslavement of people in Jamaica and Tobago. In a personal statement released to the press last night, he said that Sir Anthony was the great-great-grandson of Sir James Fergusson, the fourth Baronet of Kilkerran and the owner of enslaved people at the Rozelle plantation in St Thomas, which had 200 enslaved people at its height. It’s reported that the Fergusson family shared compensation of £3,591 in 1836 – estimated at more than £3m today. The money was part of a £20m compensation package from the British government for the loss of “property” after slavery was abolished. The report says that Justin Welby only discovered Sir Anthony was his father in 2016, three years after his death, and he received no money from him in life, or from his estate. In the statement, the Archbishop reiterated his commitment to addressing the “enduring and damaging legacies of transatlantic slavery”. The Church Commissioners has traced its £9billion endowment fund partly to Queen Anne’s bounty, based on slavery, for which it has expressed deep sorrow. It has pledged £100m which it hopes will rise to £1bn from other donors, to address past wrongs.
Archbishop quizzed on same sex relationships and politics
The Archbishop of Canterbury gave a wide ranging interview to Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart on their podcast “The Rest is Politics: Leading”. He was asked to comment on same sex relationships, an issue which has split the church. He said: “What the Archbishop of York and I and the Bishops, by a majority, by no means unanimous, and the Church is deeply split over this — where we’ve come to is to say that all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship, whether it’s straight or gay.” But he said a simple proposal to offer prayers of blessing to same sex couples had resulted in “an enormous breakdown of relationships in a really sad way”. He was also asked about his interventions on political issues such as the last government’s Rwanda bill, which he said “could not stand the judgment of God”. He said the church should influence the world for good and his comments were always made after consultation. More recently, he spoke about the legal and moral necessity of ending the war in the Middle East, saying he was in close contact with church leaders in the region, where Christians are being crushed by conflicting forces and their numbers are disappearing as they experience diaspora and exile. The wide-ranging interview also touched on his childhood with two alcoholic parents, the period around the Queen’s death and the coronation, church growth and its deep divisions. The filmed podcast is here
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US Christian nationalists denounced for weaponising Bonhoeffer
Academics and theologians have joined the descendants of the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer to denounce Christian nationalists in America who, they say, are twisting his writings to serve a political cause in the run up to the US presidential election. Bonhoeffer resisted the Nazis and opposed the killing of the Jews. He was arrested, accused of complicity in a plot to assassinate Hitler, and executed in April 1945. This weekend, his family issued a statement saying: “We are horrified to see how the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is increasingly being distorted and misused by right-wing extremists, xenophobes, and religious agitators”. Bonhoeffer was “a peace-loving, freedom-loving humanitarian. Never would he have seen himself associated with far-right, violent movements such as Christian Nationalists and others who are trying to appropriate him today”. The family are critical of Eric Metaxas, a right-wing, Trump supporting radio host, who has compared President Biden to Hitler, spoken of ‘total war’ and posts photos of a gun on a Bible. Now a petition signed by academics in the family’s support, says Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words are being grievously misused “to put America First and to justify violence. The misalignment between these views and actions and Bonhoeffer’s own cannot be overstated. When you hear these grievous misuses, and you will, do not be fooled”.
Reports from northern Nigeria on ‘hidden’ stories of Christians killed for their faith
Belle Tindall reports from Nigeria for “Seen and Unseen”, on “a crisis” where more Christians are being killed there than in every other country combined. She says since 2000, 62,000 people have been killed for having a Christian faith, especially in the northern states, by Islamic extremist groups such as Fulani militants, Boko Haram and ISWAP – Islamic State in West African Province. She visited the northern region, meeting Christians whose villages had been burned down, family members killed and children orphaned. Some had run for their lives, escaping marauding gangs with machetes and rifles. One told a story of a friend shot at and hacked to death for refusing to deny his Christian faith. Another survived a blade slashing his neck as he knelt with his father and brother before executioners. She says in Nigeria “the relentlessly brutal attacks are seemingly hidden in plain sight” and in the UK, “we appear to be entirely unaware”. But she says: “What’s happening in Nigeria is a crisis, one that we must acknowledge”.
Two gay Baptist leaders refused ordination in Britain, will be ordained in Canada to serve here
Two gay Baptist leaders, who were refused ordination by the UK Baptist church on the basis of their sexuality and openly gay relationships, will be ordained next Sunday 27 October by the First Baptist Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and credentialed by the Canadian Association of Baptist Freedoms. They will continue to live and serve in the UK, but with credentials from overseas. Luke Dowding and Andrea King were both accepted for training as ministers in the UK and completed their theological education, but they were then prevented from being ordained. They have contested this over a number of years. They will be the first openly gay Baptist ministers in the UK, choosing not to hide their sexuality nor accept forced celibacy and singleness as the only path to accredited ministry. The Council of the Baptist Union of Great Britain recently voted to uphold a rule stating marriage is between one man and one woman, meaning that people within same sex relationships who have completed ministerial training, cannot be ordained. Luke Dowding and his husband were the first same-sex couple to marry in a Baptist church in Britain (Bloomsbury Central, London) in 2016.
Pope’s new encyclical on rediscovering the heart of humanity
The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will publish a new encyclical this Thursday, 24 October, focusing on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the context of a world “which seems to have lost its heart”. Titled “Dilexit nos”, translated as “He loved Us”, it is the Pope’s fourth encyclical, or letter, following Lumen fidei in 2013, co-written with Benedict XVI; Laudato si’ n 2015, on the environment; and Fratelli tutti in 2020, which calls for global fraternity amidst conflict and war. With this document, Pope Francis will call for a change of perspective, urging humanity to rediscover what is most essential: the heart. The encyclical’s release coincides with ongoing celebrations commemorating the 350th anniversary of the first reported appearance of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to a French nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who continued to see apparitions at her convent for the following 17 years.
Muslim women’s community hub repaired by community after arson attack
The Al Falah Institute, a community hub and education centre for Muslim women in Hayes, west London, has returned to full functioning one year after it was almost destroyed by fire in an arson attack. Hyphen Online has returned to report on its new lease of life. It began in a front room and developed into a centre through donations and community effort. After the fire, donations once more rolled in through an online fundraiser and the centre was cleaned up and repaired. Extra activities were put on including a Saturday youth club for Muslim girls and a book club.
New education resource for schools on Judaism and antisemitism
The Board of Deputies and the Anti Defamation League have produced a digital resource about Jews, Judaism and antisemitism for use in schools for pupils from age 14 and above. Jewish Living Online has been produced in the context of a rise in antisemitism in the UK, and an increase in antisemitic incidents amongst young people, with the Community Security Trust recorded 18 per cent of all incidents driven by teenagers aged under 18. The Board say: “It is our firm belief that educating about antisemitism must include a foundational knowledge of who Jews are as a people, what Judaism is, our history, language, culture, and diversity in order to help inform any specific education about antisemitism, its deadly history, tropes, and its contemporary manifestations”.
Catholic priest shot dead in Mexico after defending human rights
The Jesuit Order in Mexico has condemned gunmen who shot dead a Catholic priest who was an outspoken advocate for indigenous rights and had spoken out against the violence plaguing his community. Father Marcelo Pérez was killed after celebrating Mass in the southern state of Chiapas on Sunday. The Jesuit priest had spent almost two decades fighting for the rights of the Tzotzil indigenous group, of which he was a member. The Jesuits said his murder should not be “minimised” as an isolated case – insisting it was part of the wave of violence that organised crime groups have unleashed in Chiapas.
Testimony of a “deconstructed evangelical” who found a deeper faith
The Guardian features the story of a young Southern Baptist in the USA who underwent what is known, in evangelical Christian circles in America, as “deconstruction”. It’s a process by which people “strip back and challenge the core of their religious beliefs’ because their values are at odds with those of their church. Nathan Peace was a Baptist student who agonised over his sexuality as he believed he could never be both gay and Christian. Deconstructing left him with a sense of grief as he mourned the loss of his church and community, but he was unwilling to walk away from Christianity. In fact, it was this period of deconstruction that helped him keep his faith and today, he is a student at Yale Divinity School, studying for his master of divinity degree. When he graduates next year, he hopes to be ordained as an Episcopalian priest and describes being among Episcopalian colleagues as a safe place. The theological shift is described by the interfaith minister, the Rev Karla Kamstra, in her book “Deconstructing: Leaving Church, Finding Faith”, as a form of spiritual untangling. It involves letting go and healing from “things that no longer serve your highest good”.
Church in Wigan at centre of 19th century apparitions is saved from closure
The Catholic church in Wigan, which the Victorian mystic Teresa Higginson was said to have received rapturous visions of the Crucifixion has been saved from closure. St Mary’s and nearby St John’s, both Grade II listed churches, had been under threat of closure since the summer, but Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool said he has decided to keep both churches open. In a statement read out at Masses, Archbishop McMahon said the churches will be clustered with St Patrick’s Church, Wigan, to form the parish of St William. St Mary’s is the church were Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, began his priestly ministry as a curate following his ordination.
