Vicar Outrages Congregation by Telling Women to 'Be Silent and Submit to Your Husbands'
MAIL ONLINE: A vicar has come under fire after instructing his female parishioners to 'be silent' and 'submit to your husbands'.

Angus MacLeay, the rector of St Nicholas Church in Sevenoaks, Kent, issued a leaflet to his congregation saying that women should 'not speak' if questions could be answered by their husbands.

The pamphlet, entitled The Role Of Women In The Local Church, has enraged female members of the congregation, in particular a section called Family Life And Church Family Life.

It reads: 'Wives are to submit to their husbands in everything in recognition of the fact that husbands are head of the family as Christ is head of the church.

'This is the way God has ordered their relationships with each other and Christian marriage cannot function well without it.'

The leaflet - under a section called More Difficult Passages To Consider - continues: 'It would seem that women should remain silent... if their questions could legitimately be answered by their husbands at home.'

Reverend MacLeay, whose wife teaches at fee-paying Sevenoaks School, sits on the General Synod and is chairman of the board of trustess of Reform, a hardline organisation committed to 'reforming the church from within according to the holy scriptures'. >>> Graham Smith | Friday, February 12, 2010

TIMES ONLINE: David Code warns parents how spoilt children turn into monsters >>> Penny Wark | Saturday, February 13, 2010

Church to Vote on Greater Rights for Partners of Gay Clergy
THE TELEGRAPH: The Church of England is poised to give greater recognition to homosexual clergy in relationships, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

A proposal to give the partners of gay priests some of the same rights that are awarded to priests' spouses is likely to spark a new row over homosexuality.

Bishops and senior clergy will debate at next month's General Synod whether the Church should provide same-sex couples with the same financial benefits as are awarded to married couples.

Traditionalists have expressed strong opposition to the move, which they claim would give official recognition to homosexual relationships.

They warn that affording equal treatment to heterosexual and homosexual couples would undermine the Church's teaching on marriage.

At present, the Church bars clergy from being in active gay relationships, although it bowed to pressure to allow them to enter civil partnerships on the condition that they are celibate.

Liberals believe that the motion, to be unveiled this week, could be a major breakthrough in securing rights for gay clergy.

It calls on the Archbishops' Council, chaired by Dr Rowan Williams, to introduce changes that would "provide for pension benefits to be paid to the surviving civil partners of deceased clergy on the same basis as they are currently paid to surviving spouses".

However, there are serious concerns over the effects that such a change would have on the Church's finances as well as on the thin hopes of maintaining unity in the Anglican Communion, which is deeply divided over the issue of homosexual clergy. >>> Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Saturday, January 16, 2010

Children to Be Baptised as Their Parents Are Married
This is absurd! Another one of the Archcrank’s ideas, I suppose! When a religion starts mirroring modern trends and keeps on trying to be ‘relevant’ to today’s world, then that ‘religion’ ceases to be a proper religion. Funny thing is that the more relevant the Church tries to be to modern life, the more irrelevant it becomes!

In any case, religions shouldn’t follow, they should be sources of inspiration, and they should lead. Any religion which follows trends is a flawed religion, and is destined to become even more irrelevant than it already is, it is destined to die out. Little wonder that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world today! That religion won't change its message. After all, people want to be told what is right in the eyes of God; they don’t want to tell Him! – ©Mark

TIMES ONLINE: The Church of England unveils a two-in-one wedding and baptism liturgy today as it seeks to make peace with families “living in sin”.

The “hatch-and-match” service allows couples to baptise their children after the wedding ceremony. Parents can even get baptised themselves.

The aim is to encourage cohabiting parents to marry as the Church tries to become more relevant to the way people live their lives, but critics said that it appeared to sanction having children out of wedlock. One bishop described the idea as “nutty”. The liturgy, costing £272, is being sent out to dioceses and parish clergy today.

The move comes after research commissioned by the archbishops of Canterbury and York found that increasing numbers of couples marrying in church already had children. The latest figures on births and marriages show that about 44 per cent of children are born to unmarried women. >>> Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent | Thursday, July 23, 2009

Church of England Under Pressure to Accept Gay Marriage
MAIL Online: The Church of England warned last night that it is under pressure to accept gay marriage.

But two senior bishops - writing on behalf of the CofE - said it is not prepared to abandon its traditional teachings in favour of the idea of 'gender neutral' marriage.

They said that the Church of England considers 'it is vital for the Church to maintain a critical distance from the state and to resist what the state is doing if this is at odds with Scripture.'

The fears over same sex marriage were made public at a meeting of the Church's parliament, the General Synod.

They come at a time of high tension between Labour ministers and leading churches over gay rights and equality laws[.]

The concerns were raised in a letter from Bishop of Guildford Dr Christopher Hill and Bishop of Chichester Dr John Hinds to leaders of the Swedish state church which has close and formal links with the Anglicans.

The bishops - writing on behalf of the CofE - said they could not accept beliefs 'in which the idea of a fundamental distinction between the genders is seen as irrelevant and in which marriage is therefore seen as something that can and should be gender neutral.'

Their letter was a response to moves in the Church of Sweden to offer gender neutral marriage services which could be used for either brides and grooms or for same sex couples.

But it made plain that the CofE will resist pressure from the Government in Britain to introduce any form of same sex marriage. >>> Steve Doughty | Saturday, July 11, 2009