Clergy Could Be Sued If They Refuse to Carry Out ‘Gay Marriages’, Traditionalists Fear
THE TELEGRAPH: Clergy could be sued if they refuse to carry out “gay marriages” in church, leading figures have warned.

Traditionalist bishops and peers fear that vicars could be taken to court and accused of discrimination if they turn down requests to hold civil partnerships on religious premises.

Their concerns have been raised following a landmark vote by peers that will allow the ceremonies for same-sex couples to be held in places of worship for the first time.

It is also feared that the changes would blur the line further between marriage - which churches say must be between a man and a woman - and civil partnerships.

It comes after a Government drive to outlaw bias against minority groups such as homosexuals in the Equality Bill. >>> Martin Beckford and Heidi Blake | Wednesday, 03. March 2010

Vatican Tells Clergy Not to Show Off on Television
TIMES ONLINE: Media-friendly priests and bishops beware: the Vatican has warned clergy who appear on television to remember they are not glamorous “stars" or “showmen" but only communicators bringing the Christian message to a mass audience.

Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, said “evangelisation does not need showmen priests who go on television." He was speaking after a conference on “Communication and the Mission of the Priesthood" at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

“Communication should foster communion in the Church," Monsignor Piacenza said. Television and radio were “not a platform for individuals showing off" and becoming “the centre of attention".

Such behaviour not only interfered with the message itself but “what is more serious still, it introduces division".

He urged priests “not to improvise" on television, and to avoid “banal sentimentality", saying that their message should be based on “2000 years of communion in the faith," a message which “can only be transmitted through one's own experience and interior life". >>> Richard Owen in Rome | Thursday, December 10, 2009

Wishing Happy Christmas 'Could Be an Obscenity' Warns Bishop
THE TELEGRAPH: Wishing people a Happy Christmas could be seen as an "insult" or even an "obscenity" as not everyone is in a position to celebrate, a bishop has warned.

The Right Reverend Humphrey Southern, the Bishop of Repton, said it was a "hollow" greeting to make to those who were suffering.

People should not "simply make a cocoon of happiness for ourselves and our loved ones" at Christmas, he said.

Writing in the monthly Derby diocese newsletter, he said: "This is the 'Happy Christmas' month. Yet to many that greeting will be hollow, coming as an insult, or even an obscenity."

The bishop, 49, went on to ask: "What can 'Happy Christmas' mean in a family whose father has been killed in a military operation in Afghanistan that fewer and fewer people understand (still less support)?

"How do you wish 'Happy Christmas' to a community in the Indian Ocean who can probably count on the fingers of a couple of hands the number of Christmases they will see before their home disappears under water, victim to global warming?

"What could it possibly mean to the victim of bullying, ostracism or racial intimidation in your workplace or neighbourhoods or community?" >>> Stephen Adams | ay, November 27, 2009

Church of England Set to Lose a Tenth of Its Clergy in Five Years
TIMES ONLINE: The Church of England is facing the loss of as many as one in ten paid clergy in the next five years and internal documents seen by The Times admit that the traditional model of a vicar in every parish is over.

The credit crunch and a pension funding crisis have left dioceses facing massive restructuring programmes. Church statistics show that between 2000 and 2013 stipendiary or paid clergy numbers will have fallen by nearly a quarter.

According to figures on the Church of England website, there will be an 8.3 per cent decrease in paid clergy in the next four years, from 8,400 this year to 7,700 in to 2013. This represents a 22.5 per cent decrease since 2000. If this trend continues in just over 50 years there will be no full-time paid clergy left in Britain’s 13,000 parishes serving 16,000 churches.

Jobs will instead be filled by unpaid part-timers, giving rise to fears about the quality of parish ministry. Combined with a big reduction in churchgoing, the figures will add weight to the campaign for disestablishment. >>> Ruth Gledhill and Tim Glanfield | Saturday, November 28, 2009

Russian Priest and Muslim Critic, Daniil Sysoyev, Assassinated in Church
The Russian Orthodox priest Daniil Sysoyev, 35, was shot by a masked gunman. Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: A Russian Orthodox priest known for his outspoken criticism of Islam and attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity has been assassinated in his Moscow church.

A masked gunman shot Father Daniil Sysoyev in the head and chest after asking for him by name, police said. The choirmaster, Vladimir Strelbinsky, was seriously wounded in the attack at St Thomas Church in southern Moscow.

Father Daniil, 35, died of his wounds in hospital late last night. A Russian newspaper reported that he had recently told its journalists of 14 death threats by telephone and e-mail, which he had received as a result of his work among Muslim migrants from former Soviet republics.

“They’ve threatened to cut my head off 14 times,” the priest told Komsomolskaya Pravda, adding that the Federal Security Service had contacted him last year after uncovering a plot to murder him. >>> Tony Halpin in Moscow | Friday, November 10, 2009

Archbishop Tells Pope: There Will Be No Turning Back on Women Priests
TIMES ONLINE: The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday made his most outspoken challenge to the Roman Catholic Church since the Pope invited disaffected Anglicans to switch to Rome.

Speaking before he meets Benedict XVI tomorrow, Dr Rowan Williams told a conference in Rome that the Catholic Church’s refusal to ordain women was a bar to Christian unity.

“For many Anglicans, not ordaining women has a possible unwelcome implication about the difference between baptised men and baptised women,” he said.

The Anglican provinces that ordain women had retained rather than lost their Catholic holiness and sacramentalism, he said. >>> Ruth Gledhill and Richard Owen in Rome | Friday, November 20, 2009

Pat Condell: The Arrogance of Clergy

Don't Wear Dem Dog-Collars No More! They’re Not Safe. Naturally, We Can Only Wonder Why
THE TELEGRAPH: Vicars have been told to stop wearing dog-collars because they increase the likelihood of them being attacked.

Even the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, should abandon the traditional dress, according to the Church of England's security adviser.

A new report warns clergy that the collars make them an "easy target" and says they should adopt more casual clothing in a bid to give them greater safety.

It was commissioned after the murder in March of Paul Bennett, vicar of St Fagan's Church in Trecynon, near Aberdare, who became the fifth cleric to be killed in a decade.

Other safety measures proposed include disguising the whereabouts of the vicarage by taking down signs and ensuring that the front doors of their homes do not have a letter box that people can look through.

However, it is the recommendation that they should cease wearing dog-collars in public that is most controversial. They have been worn since the early 19th century and many priests are not seen without them. Vicars urged to drop 'risky' dog collars (more) By Jonathan Wynne-Jones

Mark Alexander