Poll calls for rejection of Anglican Covenant
VOTERS on last week’s Question of the Week in the Church Times have overwhelmingly called for the Church of England to reject the Anglican Covenant. A total of 83 per cent of the 947 people who voted said that the Covenant should be rejected, while just 17 per cent voted in favour of it. The poll is not necessarily a representative sample of the Church of England.
Heterosexual couple refused civil partnership
A HETEROSEXUAL couple, Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle, were refused a civil partnership at Islington Register Office, in London, on Tuesday. The couple are part of the Equal Love campaign run by the human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, which is seeking to allow same-sex couples to be married, and to allow heterosexual couples to enter into civil partnerships (News, 5 November). The couple do not wish to be married, as they dislike the “patriarchal traditions” of the institution.
Judge praises Christian values of stabbed MP
WHEN the judge sentenced Roshonara Choudhry to life imprisonment last week for stabbing the Labour MP Stephen Timms, he praised Mr Timms’s Christian belief. Mr Justice Cooke said that Mr Timms “brings to bear his own faith, which upholds very different values to those which appear to have driven this defendant. Those values are those upon which the common law of this country was founded, and include respect and love for one’s neighbour, for the foreigner in the land, and for those who consider themselves enemies, all as part of one’s love of God.”
Vicar convicted of downloading child pornography
THE Revd Dominic Stone, Team Vicar in the Uttoxeter Area Team Ministry in the diocese of Lichfield, was last week found guilty on 16 counts of downloading indecent images of children. He will be sentenced next month. The Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill, will await the sentence before considering the removal of the cleric from his current position and prohibition from ministry as a priest.
Bishop of Edinburgh to retire
THE Bishop of Edinburgh, the Rt Revd Brian Smith, has announced that he is to retire on 15 August 2011, his 68th birthday.